Tucked away almost, beneath Petosa’s Family Grocer, and behind a series of small storefronts, is an organization that has been fighting for victims of multiple sclerosis from Edmonds since 1999.
The charismatic leader of the Multiple Sclerosis Helping Hands Donor Closet (MSHH) is Bill Brayer.
There’s a sort of analogy in the organization’s location, and in its logo: The logo features a turtle, no longer tucked away, but with its neck sticking proudly out.
Turtles don’t move — don’t get anything done — until they stick their necks out, said Brayer, who has MS. So it is with MSHH. Since it first stuck its next out nine years ago, the group has provided over $105,000 in financial assistance grants to people with MS who live in Washington.
That pace is accelerating. Over $52,000 of that was provided in 2007 alone, Brayer said. Always reaching, Brayer wants to extend the group’s work.
“If we can get more people coming in here and more people knowing about us, that is what we need,” he said recently from the warehouse that doubles as MSHH’s office and headquarters.
MS is a debilitating and unpredictable neurological disease with no known cure. For reasons not entirely understood, it impacts people from the Pacific Northwest in large numbers.
MSHH’s mission is simple: Brayer wants to directly help people suffering from MS, he said. Other MS groups raise money to find a cure, and that’s admirable, but MSHH focuses on the patients and their needs, he said.
It does that by recycling scooters, power chairs and other durable medical and mobility equipment.
Over 56,000 items have shuffled through MSHH’s Edmonds location since October 1999, Brayer said.
Its warehouse is jam packed with motor scooters and canes and walkers — and more. There are hospitals beds, Hoyer Lifts, wheelchairs and other equipment. The items are available to low-income and physically challenged people for minimum donations. The donations are used to provide financial assistance to MS victims.
“This isn’t something that we do just in Snohomish or King counties,” Brayer said. “This is something we do statewide.”
March is national MS education and awareness month, and so MSHH has hosted a series of special events. Those include power scooter giveaways each Saturday during March, a raffle for a wheelchair accessible van and a model airplane auction.
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